We recently connected with Suzanne Tulien and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Suzanne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

After leaving corporate America, my first entrepreneurial venture was a graphic design boutique called ‘I.D. By Design,’ it was in doing that work that gave me the idea to pivot into what I do now as a consultant and speaker with Brand Ascension, my own company.

Here’s how that happened…
As I was entering my 3rd year designing logos and marketing materials for my clients I had a major B.F.O. (Blinding Flash of the Obvious!) After working with my clients and designing hundreds of pretty visuals for their brand, I realized that they, the owners, didn’t really have a good grasp of their own brand. They, like many, believed their brand was simply a logo, a website, business cards, and brochures.

My ‘aha’ moment hit me like ton of bricks.

‘OMG!, I thought to myself, ‘all I am really doing here for my clients is putting lipstick on the pig’ (so to speak). ‘Painting’ their brand with pretty fonts and colors to attract their markets, without truly understanding the authentic brand value position they need to hold in the minds of their markets. If they couldn’t tell me, who was I as a vendor-designer to create visuals that supposedly represented their brand?

That’s when everything changed for me. I realized I was doing my clients a dis-service. I was just creating professionally designed visual images without any brand foundation. And who were my clients to say whether or not these designs were ‘on-brand’ or not if they, themselves, were not even clear on their brand value position?

I almost immediately pivoted my direction from designing to consulting on a methodology to assign their unique brand from the inside out. I wanted to help my clients identify, define, and align to their own unique brand value, infuse it into their systems and processes, and walk the talk to deliver on their promises everyday (not just randomly market with pretty images!).

This caused me to research best practices for highly successful brands and uncover a methodology that I called ‘Brand DNA’ (also my first book). This methodology had to map out the steps involved in identifying and defining the unique attributes of the client brand in a way that was simple and creatively engaging for all representatives to embrace and to enable its infusion into their current systems and processes, communication and leadership. You see, a brand is simply a perception, and ‘branding’ is just the process of assigning meaning to the perceptions you want others to have. The Brand DNA process was designed as a discovery tool for businesses to get the clarity they need to walk their talk and actually deliver on their promises everyday.

This changed not only the way I worked with my clients, but changed the way my clients saw themselves and the value they bring to their markets. It shifted their own perceptions of how they will start showing up, how they train their employees, and how they discern differently on so many business growth challenges. They are now able to consciously, strategically, and deliberately build a brand that is clearly defined, and align to it as they scale and carve out distinction in the market. In other words, they are able to stay in their own ‘lane’ with clarity and intention to become the ‘go-to’ brand of choice.

If you don’t know what’s in your Brand DNA as an owner, then your customers and community cannot possibly know either!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

How I got into the brand consulting industry was mentioned above in my story about how I pivoted out of graphic design and marketing into internal brand development. I was passionate to get to the heart of helping my clients create true distinction – not by just looking different – but by BEING different in every way they deliver their products and services and in alignment with the brand they want to espouse.

My approach sets me apart, as I work from the inside-out to build my client Brand DNAs. I am a highly experiential consultant/trainer which means I like to ensure the enlistment of all brand ambassadors within the company, equip them with the proper tools to deliver, and engage them to take action to live the brand within every job responsibility they have.

With the step-by-step Brand DNA methodology, the transformation of mindset, ownership, and protection of the brand begin as soon as the clarity starts to surface as the process unfolds.

Going on 19 years now with Brand Ascension – I can say that the thing that makes me most proud is all the tools we developed over the years to uncover the brand and then infuse it into the hearts and minds of the employees, and then seeing the tangible, visceral changes the collective company makes to elevate their existence and deliver on their promises everyday.

I like to remind my clients that, “Marketing might get your prospects in the door, but it is your Brand that keeps them coming back…and telling their friends!”

This process works so well I wanted to introduce it into the solo-professional arena to help those realtors, brokers, consultants, sales reps, practitioners and distributors realize that they themselves are the brands of their businesses (not their product or service). And that they can leverage their own personal brand to create powerful distinction and attract like-minded clients. This focus opened up a whole new market for me as I began to support Solopreneurs through mastermind coaching groups, individual coaching, and built an online self-directed course called “Ignite Your Personal Brand Presence.”

I wrote “Personal Brand Clarity,” my latest book, in 2020 (my COVID quarantine project!) and launched a whole new way to access the methodology for the solopreneur. Now, I have been speaking & training on the topic live and virtually all over the world.

From that work, I developed a Personal Brand Leadership workshop and reintroduced that into corporations for their emerging leaders to learn more about the power of clarity of their own personal brands to enable them to step into their own leadership skill sets and talents. This workshop teaches that you cannot be a great leader until you showcase how you can effectively lead yourself. So it takes the leader on an inward clarifying journey and provides the tools to infuse their own attributes into their leadership style while building a powerful, loyal following through trust and consistency.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Walking my talk, and delivering on my promise is what helped me build my reputation, hands down.

I try to underpromise and over deliver. I get real with my clients. I support their dreams and goals, and hold them accountable to doing the work necessary to accomplish those goals. I am not about fluff, but rather I am transparent, curious, and driven to be the best I can be and help my clients do the same.

I decided to become a certified trainer, as I love to edu-tain others into learning new ways of being. Most of my clients came from my audiences at speaking events. I also built a referral base that has kept prospects coming my way from past client work.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Landing one of the largest media/communication companies in the West was a huge accomplishment for us when we first started consulting. At the time, I had a business partner and we were doing workshops on the Brand DNA process when one of the attendees happen to be a VP of Marketing for this large media company. She invited us to meet the VP of Sales at their offices the next week. We were thrilled and scared at the same time. Could we do this if we landed the client of this size? We were definitely questioning a lot of things, but wanted to play it out.

Eight years later, we were in awe of all the work we did to help clarify their unique Brand DNA and on-board over 3,000 employees across the nation in our ‘brand awareness’ events. We were witness to a full on transformation of the company energy, clarity, coherence and consistency that helped build and scale the company to reach its all time goals.

Most of our tools and processes were developed and honed because of this client and the needs we were able to recognize and address in a large corporate culture. It was phenomenal how creative this client enabled us to become to help solve their branding issues. Most of the tools were invented from scratch to solve timely challenges – so we were able to ‘sell the tool’ in concept form, before even creating it. Working with them truly evolved our own consulting firm and stockpiled out toolbox with some amazing solutions that I still use to this day to support my current clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.BrandAscension.com
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/brandascensionconsulting
• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/brandascension
• Linkedin: Www.linkedin.in.com/suzannetulien
• Twitter: @suzannetulien or @brandascension
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/TheBrandAscension
• Other: Www.PersonalBrandPresence.com

Image Credits
All photos owned by Suzanne Tulien